Funky Bluesology

This chapter examines Gil Scott-Heron as an exemplar of the socio-political manifestation of the contrarianism in funk aesthetics. Combining biographical information from Scott-Heron’s memoir and interviews, critical methods from literary scholarship, and insights from philosophy, the chapter highlights Scott-Heron’s understanding of the blues as a locus of black aesthetics and political philosophy. In doing so, the chapter illuminates Scott-Heron’s prescience, and examines many of his multiple talents, including poetry, songwriting, singing, and playing keyboards. Unlike most recording artists, however, Scott-Heron was influenced by writers, especially the Black Arts writers who generally believed that artists should create primarily for working-class African Americans. Consequently, he curtailed his budding career as a novelist and shifted his concentration to performing and recording songs and poems in the early 1970s. The chapter includes textual analyses of key recordings as well as discussions of Scott-Heron’s satire and social criticism. Additionally, Bolden highlights musical aspects of Scott-Heron’s appeal, especially the timbre of his voice but also the musicianship of the Midnight Band, which he co-led with longtime collaborator Brian Jackson.

The Kinkiness of Turquoise

This chapter showcases Betty Davis’s transposition of women’s blues into rock-inflected version of funk. Bolden advances two key arguments. First, Davis reprised the sexual politics and rebellious spirit exemplified by singers Bessie Smith and Ida Cox, for instance, and reinterpreted those principles in modern America. Second, Davis’s eroticism and sui generis style of funk, which she expressed in her recordings and onstage, reflected a sexual politics that served as a counterpart to those of black feminists writers such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and many others who were publishing coextensively. But whereas black feminist writers often wrote about black women in previous generations, Davis not only addressed contradictions that black women encountered in contemporary street culture; she also represented such X-rated sexual desires as sadomasochism in her songwriting. In addition, the chapter provides biographical information that contextualizes Davis’s route to the music industry, and Bolden uses critical methods from scholarship on African American poetry to illuminate Davis’s vocal technique.